City Of Darkness Revisited

For near­ly 50 years, the extra­or­di­na­ry com­mu­ni­ty of Kow­loon Wal­led City cut a dark pre­sence in the heart of Hong Kong. Yet wit­hout legis­la­ti­on and with litt­le regard for basic ser­vices, plan­ning regu­la­ti­ons or buil­ding stan­dards, the City not only sur­vi­ved, it posi­tively thri­ved. But how could such a place exist in a modern metro­po­lis wit­hout admi­nis­tra­ti­ve over­sight — ‘triply neglec­ted’, to use a Hong Kong term — by the Bri­tish, Chi­ne­se and Hong Kong Governments? Who would choo­se to live the­re? And why? Some of the­se ques­ti­ons were ans­we­red in our book City of Darkness: Life in Kow­loon Wal­led City, but for various rea­sons a num­ber of key ele­ments were left out.

City of Darkness Revi­si­ted fills in the­se gaps and brings the sto­ry up to date, mixing pho­to­graphs and inter­views found in the ori­gi­nal book with a wide ran­ge of new mate­ri­al that has come to light over the past 20 years, in the form of new pho­to­graphs, drawings, maps, docu­ments and essays, many pre­vious­ly unpu­blished. City of Darkness Revi­si­ted explo­res in grea­ter detail than ever befo­re the Wal­led City’s dra­ma­tic growth bet­ween 1945 and 1990, while at the same time loo­king into the dar­ker sides of its past and expo­sing the truth behind many of the myths that gave the City its abi­ding sen­se of mys­te­ry.

We exp­lain how the City’s clearan­ce came about and shi­ne a light on why pre­vious attempts to rid Hong Kong of this noto­rious encla­ve always fai­led, sty­mied over the mat­ter of its dual juris­dic­tion. Brin­ging the sto­ry up to date, the book also dis­cus­ses how per­cep­ti­ons of the City have chan­ged so dra­ma­ti­cal­ly in the 20 years sin­ce its demo­li­ti­on — shun­ned by most Hong Kong resi­dents during its life­time, but now seen as part of the city’s rich cul­tu­ral and archi­tec­tu­ral heri­ta­ge. And final­ly, we explo­re how the City and the myths that swirl around it have infil­tra­ted archi­tec­tu­ral deba­te and popu­lar cul­tu­re through film, lite­ra­tu­re, Japa­ne­se man­ga, video games, art and design.

City of Darkness Revi­si­ted offers a uni­que insight into the remar­kab­le com­mu­ni­ty that was Kow­loon Wal­led City, home to some 35,000 peop­le at its peak and by far the most den­sely popu­la­ted neigh­bour­hood the world has ever known.